The Turgo Impulse turbine provides a unique and novel solution to increasing the capacity of a hydraulic
impulse turbine while maintaining the nozzle and spear injector system (as used in Pelton turbines) for
flow regulation. This has produced a turbine which operates in the higher flow ranges usually reserved
for Francis machines while maintaining a relatively flat efficiency curve, characteristic of impulse
machines.
Since its invention nearly 100 years ago, the Turgo turbine has been installed in thousands of locations
across the globe. The majority of the development of the Turgo turbine design has been through the use
of paper based and experimental studies however recent advances in computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
tools have allowed the simulation of the complex, highly turbulent, multiphase flows associated with
impulse turbines and some work has been done in applying this to the Turgo design. This review looks
at the development of the of the Turgo turbine since its invention in 1919 and includes the paperbased
analyses, experimental studies and the more recent CFD analyses carried out on the design